The distinguished translator Joaquina Pires-O’Brien was born in Brazil and is a long-time resident in the United Kingdom. She has had a long career as a research botanist and has an outstanding academic record: Dr. Pires-O’Brien has studied at the Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, at the Central Washington State College (B.A.), at Oregon State University (M.Sc.), and holds a PhD from University College London (UCL) and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.

Joaquina Pires-O’Brien is also the founder and editor of the magazine PortVitoria, dedicated to the Lusophone and Hispanophone communities worldwide.

Hugh Thomas’s book covers Philip II’s annexation of Portugal and its overseas territories in 1580, after King Sebastian died without heir. Philip II, the son of Infanta Isabella of Portugal, was the legitimate successor to the Portuguese crown, but the Portuguese population was divided and a faction would not yield without a fight. After their defeat by the Spanish, Philip II (crowned as Philip I of Portugal) established his capital in Lisbon for two years, later returning to Madrid.

Taking over the Portuguese seaborne Empire, Philip II indeed governed over the largest expanse of territory ever held by a single man. Although the Iberian Union was ruled under the principle, one crown and two separate administrations, which meant that only Portuguese officials administered the Portuguese territories, without interference from Spain. Even the old Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) was to remain in force and to be respected for centuries, that treaty divided the newly found lands between Spain and Portugal and precluded the Spaniards from navigating to Asia via the Cape of Good Hope.

The Iberian Union lasted for sixty years (1580-1640) not without Portuguese resentment. In fact the union was presided by a complete lack of cooperation and coordination if not hostility, features which historically have marked the relations between the two countries and their respective territories of influence, turning their backs on one another in spite of their shared roots, their strong cultural and linguistic affinities, and the compelling reasons for a common ground.

Philip II’s latest and most loyal courtier, who served him until his dead as his first minister, was the Portuguese nobleman Don Cristóbal de Moura.

An important feature at the Christmas Cocktail is the traditional “Abaco de Oro” or Golden Abacus, which is awarded to a person, company or institution that has specially contributed to increasing the relationship

4 Comments

Angelo Paratico

January 16, 2015 - 7:49 am

Primeiro? I beg to disagree, what about the Mongol empire? Also the claim that Philip II ruled over the largest territory held by a single man seems to be wrong. Perhaps such man was Genghis Khan or Ogotai Khan.
all the best!
Angelo

Ciriaco Offeddu

January 16, 2015 - 10:19 am

Waiting for your duel: ‘A Espanha como Primeiro Império Global da História Moderna’ seems correct to me, because the ‘História Moderna’ started in XV century, and Gengis Khan died in 1227. For the largest territory held by a single man, I read it was Gengis Khan’s empire, but I’m not sure. In any case, I’m holding my breath…

Angelo Paratico

January 16, 2015 - 1:43 pm

I don’t think at the time of Genghis, because he had not yet added Russia and the whole of China. Probably at the time of his son Ogotai or his immediate successor. They conquered Russia and reached Budapest and Vienna in 1241. Took India, Burma, Vietnam, conquered Baghdad and murdered the entire population. One thing people normally don’t consider is that just Mongolia is as large as Europe…

Juan José Morales

January 16, 2015 - 4:43 pm

The Portuguese article’s title is correct: “Spain as the first global empire in modern history”. The Mongols did not have any global empire, for they did not know the shores of the Atlantic and the Pacific, nor they imagined a globe. The Mongols belong to the Middle Ages, as correctly pointed out by Ciriaco, nor to modern history as conventionally understood. No historian, as far as I know, has disputed the claim of the title.

To say that Philip II ruled over the largest expanse of territory a man ever did is equally correct, so it is acknoweledged by Hugh Thomas, for Philip II ruled over the Pacific – a Spanish lake throughout the 16th century as historian O.H.K. Spate famously put it. On Philip II’s desk there would rest documents regarding the Mariana Islands in the middle of the Pacific, an archipelago over which the Spanish ruled until 1898 when they were seized by the US as other Spanish Pacific islands.

The history of thr world is to a great extent a maritime history and this is emphasised in many new historic accounts. To reach the Atlantic shores of America or the Pacific shores of Philippines the Spanish have to cross the seas. This sense of interconnection over so vast expanses of the earth (first true glibalization) was what I pretended to highlight with the title and the introductory wordings to the Portuguese translation. That was to have lasting implications.